Lighting The Shadows
by Thunder Explosion
Summary: After finding out just how evil his future self was, Rogue felt the need to apologize to one person in particular. Quick one-shot I wrote for RoLu week before work.


**A/N: Just a quick little something I wrote before going to work. I had no idea it was RoLu week, so when I found out today, this just kinda came to me and I started writing. Anyway, hope you enjoy!:)**

**...**

He walked with his best friend and fellow dragon slayer through the quiet streets of Magnolia along the canal, their exceeds floating behind them. Looking down the concrete path, he saw the sign that he was looking for glowing in the moonlight. 'Strawberry Street'.

"Are you sure this is a good idea, Rogue?" The blond man walked casually beside him as they approached the small house. Rogue nodded his head in affirmation, determined to go through with this. Once on the front step, they could hear a loud commotion brewing inside. The familiar voice of Natsu Dragneel was yelling something about being hungry, a couple other familiar voices from Fairy Tail arguing with him, and Lucy screaming about her apartment getting ruined.

"You still sure this is a good idea?" Sting asked again.

"I think it's a terrible idea" Lector, who had now touched down on the ground, voiced out.

"Fro thinks so too!"

Rogue just shook his head at his friends and walked up to the door, ringing the bell.

Inside the house:

"What the hell was that?" Natsu stopped all fighting and devouring of Lucy's food and directed his attention toward the strange sound.

"Indeed, what a strange sound. We should investigate this" Erza stood up in a commanding posture, ready to track down the culprit of sound.

Happy then asked "Lucy, is your place haunted?" Gray also had a quizzical look on his face, but refrained from making a comment.

Lucy sighed. Really, how dense could her guildmates get? "Guys, that's called a doorbell. It's a device that, when pressed, makes a noise inside the house to let the owner know that someone would like to be let in. It's a much better way to enter someones home than through the window, chimney, or just breaking the door down. Try it out sometime."

Lucy shook her head before heading to the door and opening it to see who was standing outside. However, even in her wildest dreams she would never imagine that THOSE two would be standing outside. "Sting? Rogue?"

"Ah, hello Lucy! Is Natsu here?"

"Well, yeah, he's ins-"

"Natsu! Fight me!" Sting pushed past the other blond and jumped at the pink haired slayer, trading blows until Erza smashed their heads together. The exceeds, who were now all sitting together on the table, and Gray, were laughing hysterically. Lucy turned back toward Rogue.

"I take it you're the one who rang the doorbell?" Rogue simply nodded his head. "Well, I appreciate you being so polite. So why are you guys here tonight?"

Rogue looked around anxiously. The rest of the group wasn't paying attention to their interraction at the moment, but he still didn't want to risk being overheard. "Could we talk outside. Where it's more, um, private."

"Sure I guess." Lucy was very confused as to what the shadow dragon could want to talk about, but sensed no malice from him as he led her out into the street. "So what's up?"

Rogue continued to look around and Lucy could tell that she wasn't very good with these types of situations. "Um, I came to apologize." He nervously looked up into her eyes to gauge her reaction. Nothing.

"Huh? For what?"

Rogue took a deep breath as he began to explain. "After the Eclipse incident, I heard that - that myself from the future appeared, and, and" he couldn't finish his explanation as tears started to stream down his face. He didn't have to though. Lucy knew exactly what he was referring to. The memory of watching herself die was something that she wouldn't be able to forget in a very long time, if ever.

"Rogue, it's okay. You don't have to apologize." Lucy stepped closer toward him.

"But I do though. I can't believe that I could become so twisted like that. That I would become so enveloped in darkness that I could so callously take an innocent life." At this point Lucy had wrapped her arms around him and let him cry into her shoulder. "I know it might be a lot to ask, but can you forgive me for everything I put you through?"

"No" Lucy said almost as quickly as he asked the question. She pulled herself away from him and looked him dead in the eyes. "I can't forgive you because you haven't done anything wrong. That wasn't you back then and that's not who you'll become. You're walking the path of light now. You have your best friend and your exceed by your side, along with the rest of your guildmates. You also have your rivals from Fairy Tail who have basically accepted you as part of their family. And you have me as well."

"Really?" Rogue asked as the tears began to stop flowing.

"Yes, really. With all these friends who care about you, there's no way any of us would let you give in to the darkness." Lucy smiled at him again as Rogue had completely stopped crying. "Now come on, I'm sure everyone is wondering where we ran off at." And with that, she led him back inside to her apartment. Which was now completely trashed.

Everyone who was inside, even Erza, gazed at Lucy in fear, scared of invoking her wrath when it came to her home. "We're sorry Lucy!" Natsu and Sting were both on their hands and knees groveling for forgiveness. However, Lucy didn't scold them at all.

"Let's clean up a little bit; Gajeel, Juvia, and Levy are gonna be here in a little bit after all" she smiled as she began to clean up the boys' mess.

Natsu and Sting stared at her dumbfounded while Gray and Happy started whispering to each other about Lucy acting weird. "She's always weird" Happy confirmed.

"Are you guys gonna help or not?" Lucy now had more of an edge in her voice, which immediately snapped Sting and Natsu out of their thoughts and into cleaning mode. Gray and the exceeds joined in, while Erza requipped into a maid's outfit to 'fit the occasion'. Rogue chuckled at the scene in front of him.

Soon, the three aforementioned wizards arrived. They were a little shocked at seeing the Sabertooth members there, but accepted them nontheless.

The night was filled with laughter and cheering, with the occasional good-natured fight that Erza quickly broke up. Rogue and Sting got to know the Fairy Tail members a lot better, especially the ones who weren't dragon slayers. They all played games, watched lacrima videos, and sang and cheered songs, some a lot better than others (so much that everyone thought it was a rule that you had to be tone deaf to be a dragon slayer, much like motion sickness). However, all nights must come to an end, and tonight was no different.

"Thank you all for coming" Lucy said to the Sabertooth members as she said her farewells. "You both had fun, right?"

"Yeah it was awesome! I can't wait to kick Natsu's ass in pong again!" Sting exclaimed.

"The only reason you won was because that Juvia girl hit all the shots for you" Lector commented.

"Fro thinks so too!"

Sting grumbled an argument but didn't really say much else as he began to turn away, causing Rogue and Lucy to both smile at his childish antics. He turned back to Lucy to say his goodbyes. "Thank you for everything tonight, Lucy."

"You'll stop by again, right?" she asked.

"Of course. There's no way I would miss hanging out with my friends like this." Lucy giggled at him calling them his friends, and caused Rogue to smile as well.

She smiled at him as she said a final farewell and shut the door, leaving Rogue to walk back to the station and return to the guild. He flashbacked to the fight against the dragons in Crocus, when he and Sting were fighting side by side. 'If I become enveloped in darkness, the light would surely kill me.' He smiled, it wasn't a fond memory, but it was the first time he realized that he had a choice in lis life, that his actions weren't driven by fate. And now, that light shone in him brighter than ever before. His friends were his light. His guildmates were his light.

And Lucy Heartfillia was his light, the light that would finally burn away his darkness.

"Hey, what are you waiting for?" Sting's voice rang out through the night air. Rogue, realizing that he had been standing still for a good amount of time, ran up to his comrades, a smile still plastered on his face. "You look happy" the blond idly commented. Rogue just smiled at him and continued walking.

"We're going back again, right? I mean, to visit at some point."

Sting shrugged. "I don't see why we can't. It'd be nice to hang out with them again. Sides, I gotta kick Natsu's ass in a lot more stuff."

Rogue smiled, something it felt like he'd be doing a lot more of lately.

"Race ya!" Sting shouted as he bolted off toward the train station to head back to their guild hall.

Rogue chuckled again as he took off sprinting, looking over his shoulder one more time to see where he was just with all his new friends at, before slipping into the shadows and speeding past Sting.

His magic may be the absence of light, the epitome of darkness, but no one could say that about him anymore. His light was truly burning brighter than ever, and it was all thanks to her.

...

**A/N: Well, what'd ya think? I kinda meant for this to be more of a friendship thing than anything, but I might have dropped more romantic hints than I meant too. I guess it's a matter of perception. Anyway, it's my first time for writing these two, so review and tell me what you think! I'd really appreciate it, and I'll give out free virtual cookies!**

**Disclaimer: Thunder Explosion still has no ownership over Fairy Tail sadly.**


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